A box of angel food cake mix and a can of crushed pineapple. Nothing else except a teaspoon of vanilla, and specifically none of what the box tells you to add.

Twelve servings, thirty five minutes, and it comes out light and slightly chewy at the edges.

Ignore the box directions entirely

The ingredient list says just the powder, and no water, eggs or oil, and that instruction is the whole recipe.

Angel food cake mix already contains dried egg whites. What it needs is liquid to rehydrate them and acid to help them hold air. The undrained can of crushed pineapple provides both: pineapple juice is acidic, and twenty ounces of fruit and juice is plenty of liquid.

Adding water on top of that gives you a batter far too wet to set. Adding oil weighs down a foam cake that relies on air for its structure.

Do not over mix

this …

Combine until incorporated and smooth, then stop. The recipe says not to over mix or whip and both halves matter.

Whipping introduces more air than the batter can hold without eggs beaten separately, and it collapses in the oven. Over mixing does the opposite, knocking out what air there is.

What you want is a smooth batter with everything combined, which takes under a minute with a spoon or a mixer on low.

Undrained, and it matters

The full twenty ounce can including the juice.

Drained pineapple gives you about half the liquid and a dry batter that will not rise. The juice is not optional flavouring here, it is a structural ingredient.

Crushed rather than chunks or rings. Crushed distributes through the batter evenly. Larger pieces sink and leave holes.

Thirty minutes at 350F

Until slightly golden at the edges and a tester comes out clean.

The edges brown before the middle sets, which is normal for a nine by thirteen. Judge by the tester rather than the colour.

What the texture is like

Worth setting expectations, because this is not a conventional cake.

Angel food cake is a foam, held up by whipped egg white rather than by fat and flour. With a can of pineapple through it, the result is lighter than a sheet cake and slightly chewy, closer to a very soft sponge than to anything buttery.

The edges go golden and take on a faint caramelised chew. The middle stays pale and cloud-like.

If you are expecting a dense pineapple upside down cake, this is not that. It is its own thing and considerably lighter.

Cool completely before cutting

Angel food cake is fragile while warm and this version, with all that pineapple in it, is wetter than a standard one.

Cut warm and it tears rather than slicing. Cooled, it holds a clean square.

Serving it

Piped whipped cream or a dusting of powdered sugar, both optional.

The cake is sweet enough on its own that neither is necessary, though whipped cream adds fat to something that has almost none. At 0.2 grams of fat per serving, this is one of the leanest cakes you will find.

Three quarters of a cup of sweetened coconut flakes or chopped nuts can be stirred into the batter if you want more texture.

The sodium

Around 311mg per serving, which is high for a cake and comes almost entirely from the mix itself.

Angel food cake mixes carry a good deal of salt and leavening. There is nothing to adjust here, since the mix is the recipe, but it is worth knowing if you are watching it.

Why angel food specifically

Other cake mixes do not work the same way. A standard yellow or white mix needs the fat and eggs the box calls for, and pineapple alone gives a dense wet result.

Angel food is a foam cake with no fat in it at all, which is exactly why it can take a can of fruit as its only liquid.

Storing

Covered at room temperature two days, or refrigerated up to four. It stays moist thanks to the pineapple, unlike a plain angel food cake which dries out quickly.